Because of family
by silvi-hc
Summary: What could (should?) have happened at the end of episode "The Trial" season II. COM [AngelDarla]


**Title:** **"Because of family" 1/1**

**Author:** Silvi

**Fandom:** Ats

**Category:** Angst

**Rating:** PG

**Pairing:** Angel/Darla

**Disclaimer:** All the characters belong to Joss and co.

**Feedback:** PLEEEAASEE!!!

**Spoilers:** The Trial

**Warning:** CHARACTER-DEATH!

**AN:** the lines you recognize are from a scene in the ep. "The Trial".

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**Summary:** What could (should?) have happen at the end of "The Trial" season II.

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Pulling into the parking-lot in front of the questionable motel Darla stayed in Angel took a deep breath before killing the engine. He reached out to the door-handle and opened the door. Stepping out into the calm warm night he quietly waited for Darla to do the same. He ached in his entire body and longed to relax but he knew he wouldn´t be able to, not tonight.

After a few long minutes he heard movements from within the car and seconds later the door of the passenger seat opened and Darla stepped out. His gaze caught hers and the pain in his heart increased as he saw the sadness in them, she looked like he felt; defeated.

Reaching out a hand he waited till Darla walked around the hood of the car and after a moment of hesitation she placed her hand in his. Contemplating the hand he held he couldn´t shake off the impression of how fragile it looked. He could feel the steady pulse of her blood flowing in her veins and her heart-beat filled his ears. Even though she was human the smell that made up Darla was the same and it stirred in him memories he had since long tried to forget.

"Come on," he gently pulled at her and they began to walk the short distance to her room.

No other words were exchanged between them as she opened the door and let them both in. There wasn´t anything to be said anyway. Letting go of his hand Darla moved to the bed and sat down. Her eyes tracked Angel as he moved around obviously deep in thoughts until he sat in the chair down by the window. Darla gingerly traced patterns in the sheet beside her; she couldn´t stop thinking of what she had seen Angel go through just to help her. She had felt what he had and it amazed her that he actually cared. No-one had ever done that before.

The silence hang in the air as neither one of them wanted to be the first to break it. Looking at Angel she wondered what he was thinking; nothing pleasant judging by the deep frown.

Angel couldn´t believe how wrong this night had gone, it had been a total failure and never in his long years had he felt so defeated. He had made the ultimate sacrifice and it had all been for naught. The burns of the holy-water and crosses itched and were a constant reminder of what he had gone through. Looking over at Darla sitting on the bed and then down to his hands, one red and blistered, he realize he couldn't leave it at that; he wasn´t one for giving up so easily. Maybe things would be different since he was different, granted it was something he thought he never wanted to do but he couldn´t just let her die.

Taking deep calming breath he readied himself to voice his thoughts. Turning towards her he caught her gaze but found that he couldn´t look at her as he voiced them so he looked down at his clasped hands.

"Maybe it would be different. We don´t know," at his soft voice Darla scooted closer to him wondering were he was going with this. Hearing his voice had startled her as they both had been so quiet for so long. But as he continued she realized and a soft pang in her heart made itself known since she knew how he felt about that.

"Maybe, because, you know, I have a soul, if I did bite you..."

"No," at her soft but firm reply he looked up at her, shock and confusion evident in his expression.

"But we don´t know what it´ll do to you and..." lifting a hand Darla once again interrupted him. She didn´t want to let Angel finish that line of thought. But she knew she had to try and explain herself why she suddenly didn´t want to go down that path even though she still didn´t want to die and feared it.

"Angel, I´ve seen it now. Everything you´re going through... everything you went through. I felt it." Kindly but sadly she looked at him. She wanted to reach out to him as he looked so broken with his brown eyes shining with withheld tears, but she continued on.

"I´ve felt how you care, the way that no-one ever cared before. Not for me. That´s all I need from you." Looking down at his hands Angel un-clasped them and then fisted them hard ignoring the sharp pain coming from his burnt right-hand.

"It´s not enough." The hopelessness of the whole situation made him almost choke.

"It is." Darla stated. Frustrated Angel looked up at her and exclaimed; anger evident in his voice.

"How can the Powers allow you to be brought back, dangle a second chance and then take it away like this?!" Scooting even closer to him she tried to calm him down.

"Maybe this is my second chance, just like that man told us."

"A second chance to what, to die?" he asked unbelievingly.

"Yes, to die, the way I was supposed to die in the first place." She couldn´t hide the single tear that fell from her eye, because even though she accepted her situation she still feared it.

Ducking her head down the silence one again descended upon them. Hearing movement she looked up and saw Angel as he stood up and walked over to her, sitting next to her on the bed. Gingerly taking her hand in his he tried to smile at her.

"I´m not gonna leave you. Every moment you have left I´m gonna be there by your side. You never gonna be alone again, I promise." He wrapped an arm around her as she lent her head on his shoulder, finally letting her tears silently fall. She scurried closer to him accepting the comfort Angel was giving.

Suddenly a crash resounded in the room as the front door slammed into the wall as it burst open and black clad figures rushed in knocking Darla away from Angel. She could do nothing as she shocked looked as two of them restrained her pulling her into a corner and forced the growling Angel on his knees zapping him with electricity to immobilize him enough to restrain him.

"Angel!" she cried out as he was kneed in his side. Fear and panic was almost overwhelming her and it only increase as Lindsey walked calmly in. Angel was disoriented and in pain at the continued zapping from the pair of men holding him down. It made his burns and the hole in his leg throb.

A hand fisted in his hair and violently forced his head up, his vision was blurry so it took him a while to identify the person looming over him but the voice was unmistakable and hate began to course thru him.

"How did you think this was gonna end?" distaste making the lawyer´s voice hard and cold. Releasing his brutal hold and Angel´s hair he walked further into the room his attention now on Darla. Angel couldn´t figure out what the fucker was up to as Darla´s fear was overwhelming his senses. He tried to get away from the hands holding him down but they only pushed into his wound aggravating them.

Lindsey looked over at Angel and sneered, seeing his gaze going over his shoulder and the victorious smile that now bloomed over the lawyer´s face Angel turned his head to see what had caught his attention. Realization hit him like a ton of bricks as the slender from of the vampiress walked into the room. Suddenly it was like every sound had gone mute and things began to move in slow-motion. Looking into the eye´s of his mad childer his fear was confirmed.

Feline in her every movement she walked past him strait up to Darla that was, he could see, now whimpering even though he coudn´t hear her. Looking around for a way to stop what was happening right in front of him his eyes caught the vindictiveness in Lindsey´s.

Rage began to rise in him, of the likes he never experienced before and the dislike bordering to hate toward the man intensified ten fold. The anger he felt for the Powers that were going to let this happen fuelled the fire in him and as Drusilla lifted her hands and cradled Darla´s face biting in to the soft curl of her neck and began to drain her Angel snapped.

With the strength born out of the white hot rage that filled his every fibber of his being he burst apart the duck-tape that had been wrapped around his wrists and suddenly the world changed as it was napped out of the slow-motion.

Lindsey head whipped around in time to see one of the men that had been holding the vampire down fly into a wall, a disturbing cracking and smooching sound emanating as the head impacted with it. Lindsey barely had time to process what had happen before the other man had his neck broken and a powerful pale hand was wrapped around his and white blinding pain exploded behind his eye-lids as he too was thrown into a wall, the roar of the en-raged vampire ringing in his ears. Stunned he looked at the scene enveloping in front of him.

At the un-human sound coming from the being that had second before been on its knees the other two men let go of the female they been ordered to hold and went to help their team-mates. Drusilla whipped her head up and around and looked wide eyed as the other men were punched and kicked away as her sire stalked towards her in plain game-face. Fear began to consume her at the twisted features of her sire and quickly she dropped the weakened human in her arms and tried to step away but was stopped as a hand was wrapped around her hair and a fist fly into her face and the cracking sound of bone breaking indicating that her nose was broken.

Wailing, she thru her fist back and forward impacting with Angel´s side but she could have hit a wall for all it did to him. Grabbing her neck and her side Angel lifted her and threw her over his head, crack-lines emanating on the wall from where she had impacted. Stunned she tried to bring herself together to meat the en-raged vampire´s attacks but as his foot impacted against her stomach and head she just curled in to herself with her arms over her head whimpering and giving away a sub-wailing to low for human ear to catch.

She never moved as Angel turned away and knelt beside the fallen form of Darla.

As the red haze that had fallen over Angel´s eyes gave way he observed the chaos the room had turned into. Ignoring the crumbled form of the humans and the terror filled eyes of Lindsey he turned away from his childe bleeding lying at his feet and to the blond that lay shivering a few feet away.

Gently kneeling at her side he brushed away the hair from her face an inspected how far Drusilla had made it. Putting his hand over the bite he tried to stop the bleeding. She was still alive but she needed to get to the hospital now!

Gently scooping her up into his arms he rose and began walking out of the room. Stopping at the entrance of the broken door he turned his eyes to Lindsey that was scurrying further away from him. His eyes turn cold and he hissed his voice twisted almost unrecognisable as anger started to boil in him again.

"You are gonna PAY for this!" Hadn´t it been for the woman in his arms he would have dealt with him that very moment. He looked over the other men laying in the room surmising that the one still living wasn´t going to last. Ignoring the whimpering and twitching form of his dark-haired child he walked out and ran to the car.

Carefully manoeuvring Darla in his arms so to be able to open the door he bent down and opened it. Gently he arranged her as comfortable as he could in the black leather seat before closing the door and running over to his side. Swiftly he turned the engine on and turned the car around heading to the hospital. Looking at Darla he stretched an arm out and rearranged her so that she was resting against his side therefore making it able for him to reach the bleeding wound. One arm holding her firmly to him the other one holding the steering wheel.

Putting pressure on the wound he tried to stop the bleeding. Darla had gone incredible weak and he feared that he was going to be too late saving her bringing her to the hospital.

He will not lose her!

Looking at the pale woman at his side he realizes that he wasn´t going to be on time. The hospital was several minutes away and that was several minutes more than Darla had. Pulling over and into a parking-lot he killed the engine and gathered Darla onto his lap, cradling her in his arms. Tears threatened to fall from his eyes as he looked at her pale form.

Looking at him Darla tried to lift her hand to caress his face but she was too weak. Angel grabbed it instead and put it against his cheek.

"Angel," came the broken whisper from her lips.

"I´m so sorry Darla." He trembled a little as he shifted her to make her more comfortable and gently caressed her face.

"What...?" Darla tried to formulate a question but the fatigue had drained her of even that simple task. She was in pain and she was scared, all of which Angel could see in her eyes not to mention smell.

Bending down and brushing his cold lips against her now blue tinged ones he whispered against them.

"I´m sorry Darla, but I can´t lose you, not now...shhh my love everything is going to be OK." Whimpering in his arm Angel began to pull her further toward his chest, confusion was clearly on her face but as he slowly went into his true face her eyes widened as realization came and was soon replace by joy, but also with sadness since she knew how much this hurt him to do.

Bending over her turning her head away from him exposing the bite-wound he carefully slipped his razor-sharp fangs into them. Biting down hard so to eradicate any trails of his mad Childe he began to drink. He only took a few swallows since more would kill her permanently but it was enough to begin the transformation. Lifting his head he bit down on his wrist and gently put it on Darla´s mouth.

Relief replaced his fears of being to late when he began to feel a soft pull. He helped her along ingesting the powerful fluid by with his other hand gingerly massaging her throat. Soon the pull stopped and her eyes lost its focus and she went slack in his lap indicating that she had died. The following silence in the car was echoing. Soon it was rendered null as soft sobs filled its interior. Angel was crying.

Bending over her he began to lick away any traises of blood on her lips and with a final kiss to her still and now cold lips he once again arranged her comfortable in the passenger-seat. Whipping away at his face he took several deep breaths to calm himself down. Turning toward the ignition he turned the car back on and slowly got out of the parking-lot. Turning towards the Hyperion he began the long journey back. He has much to think about and plan before his new Childe arise. He had no idea how he was going to handle the humans working for him but he new he would find a way. But first and foremost he had a childe to burry, the rest could wait.

But then he had a war to plan, they would pay for what happened here tonight. You do not wrong the Scourge of Europe and walk away.

Fin...


End file.
